Blizzcon Dev InterviewThe Instance had a chance to interview Ghostcrawler and Russell Brower at Blizzcon. You can find a recap of the more interesting points below, but this episode is especially entertaining if you have time to listen!

Level 90 Boost

One of the problem's with WoW's success is the number of people coming back for a new expansion and not being able to join their friends right away. People may have left the game during previous expansions and would have had to level a lot before they were able to start playing with friends, which is not as much fun as playing right away. Giving everyone one free Level 90 should help out returning players.

If you take advantage of the Level 90 boost, the experience will be like Scroll of Resurrection on steroids. All of the skills will be removed from your bar except for the few that you need to be able to kill things. As you complete quests you will get more of your abilities until you have all of them, similar to the Death Knight starting experience.

Items and Professions

In the future it would be nice to save armor in a collection for transmog rather than having it fill up your bags.

Hit didn't feel like a bonus, just a hoop to jump through before having fun. It is hard to justify keeping a system like that in the game.

Tanking gear will have Armor as a tanking stat after Dodge and Parry are gone.

Reforging was supposed to be something that let players customize their gear to change their playstyle a little bit. It ended up just being extra work (and math) that had to be done if you wanted the most optimal gear.

The devs will try to reduce the economic impact that the Enchanting and Jewelcrafting changes will make. Enchanting might be able to make some weapons or offhands. Jewelcrafters might be able to make some trinkets or other things to sell.

Guilds and Raiding

The vast majority of raiders will still have a 10 player raid size option in Normal / Heroic (currently Flex / Normal). The Mythic (currently Heroic) difficulty has just one size to avoid the issues that appear when trying to balance both 10 and 25.

Today it is hard for 10 player guilds to grow, as every person that is added to the guild means one more person is sitting out. In the future you can bring that person to your raid thanks to the scaling tech.

The devs didn't talk to the top guilds about the Mythic raid size change beforehand.

Garrisons

The Garrison will have a farm, mine, and place to fish. Hopefully it will feel like a much, much bigger and cooler version of the farm.

Pet Battles and Garrisons seem like they would be nice on mobile devices, but any resources spent on doing that will not be used on the actual game.

The Pet Stable in the Garrison will allow you to assign some of your pets to appear in the world there.

Character Customization and Art

The team has talked about more customization, such as sub races, for a long time. Some would require different models with different textures. A good way to give players access to the different races would also be required. Perks for the different sub races might also be interesting.

The artists have experimented with what a brace of knives would look like on a Rogue's thigh. Quivers are another thing that are being looked at. While they might not be ready for 6.0, they are being worked on.

Misc

Draenor should feel scary, similar to the experience with Fel Reavers in Outland. There are giant Gron walking around, making the world a more dangerous place. Flying mount access will be delayed as long as possible, maybe even past Level 100 until Patch 6.1. (Keep in mind this is just an idea being tossed around)

Mists of Pandaria only had enough designers and artists to do new raids, as they last longer than a few dungeons. The encounter and art teams have become bigger since then, so more dungeons will hopefully be added in later Warlords patches.

Making big changes in the middle of an expansion is dangerous, as players log in and find significant changes that they can't keep up with. With a new expansion some bigger changes are expected, so it is safer to do larger changes for new expansions.

Sound

Sound shouldn't be annoying, which is part of reasoning for the new Hunter weapon sounds.

The last time there has been so much diversity in the sound required for the expansion was likely Vanilla. There is a lot diversity in the races and zones in Warlords.

Level 100 Talent Calculator
Over the weekend we added the Level 100 Talents to the WoWDB Talent Calculator. Keep in mind these talents will likely change significantly before release and are not final. You can find a text listing of the talents in this recap.

Character Models and Re-Customization
Ghostcrawler and other blue posters made it very clear yesterday that the "no free re-customization" is definitely not a final decision.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

New Character ModelsSo I have to say...I'm disappointed there are no screenshots of any updated human females...are they not getting a new character model update too?
We're still working on many of the character models. They are all (up to goblin and worgen) getting it. We'll consider goblin and worgen too later if it makes sense. (Don't panic.)

Chris Robinson during the art panel said he had wished he could have brought completed screenshots of all of the races and genders but it just wasn't possible. When you take a look at the ones we're able to show currently, you'll be able to see all of the hard work and care being put into them though. Check out a few races on our site- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/warlords...or/#characters

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...Keep-the-Hunch
We'll be keeping an eye on ALL feedback that's coming in on the content we're working on, just keep in mind, the issue with art is it's subjective. No matter what we do, someone else is going to believe they know how it can be better.

They have to finish updating Horde races first. After that's done, they'll start working on Alliance models.
Odd perspective when two of the models being shown on the website are dwarf and gnome and we showed the female gnome and female dwarf a little at BlizzCon. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Free Character Re-CustomizationOnce again I want to say this. The question didn't mention at all about a free customization. It only asked about if it's possible to get a customization. I think either Jay or whatever read the question wrong or the guy asked it wrong.
Again I think it's just way too early to make a determination, and Tom certainly didn't give a definite answer. Our artists are going to extreme lengths to ensure the new models and animations embody (kyuck knyuck?) what you know and love about your characters. Our hope (and Tom's point) is that you log in, go AWESOME, and enjoy playing your character that still looks and moves and acts like your character - just at a much higher fidelity. If it comes down to it and we just totally miss the mark I'm sure we'd at least seriously consider offering a chance to pick something else. But again, too early to say for sure.

With all due respect, Bash, the quote (including the additional context Chaud just posted) seems fairly definitive to me. It's only not definitive in the "it's pre-beta and anything could change" sense, but his statement was not ambiguous. His current plan is to not offer free recustomizations. Maybe he'll change his mind, but, well, that's the point of this thread: to get the policy changed.
That's cool if you want to take it that way, but there's no policy. It's current thoughts based on sound intent of a faithful update for current looks and options. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor Content

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Wrathion and Warlords of Draenor ContentWhere did Wrathion go? Why did you scrap the Burning Legion despite all of the chatter about their return? Why did BlizzCon offer so little about actual content and instead focus mainly on Garrisons? I gotta say, I am not really all that thrilled about another filler expansion that is more or less just a huge patch with new features.
I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Wrathion. Keep in mind (not saying this is related to Wrathion btw) that the story bits you've seen are just one part of the expansion's story. There will be plenty more that you'll get to experience. You are going to get to experience the Draenei's real culture, history, and heroes among many others.

There's a ton of new content as well. Garrisons is a new piece of content, as is the new PvP zone, Trial of the Gladiator is completely new and there are a ton of quality of life improvements. Not to mention all of the new (completely new from the ground up) zones, creatures, quests, story lines and much much more.

This next expansion is definitely not filler. It always makes me a bit sad when I see people who say things like this, but we'll do our best to help you see the light with more information releases as we go along.

This is part-and-parcel of a new expansion and certainly would expect nothing less. I've always found the expansions offer tons of new zones, quests, etc. The critique here is that the tone of the game seemed to be shifting in a very obvious direction, but it seems like it was scrapped last-second for Warlords. Based on the presentation--what are the raids, who are the bosses, what is the lore, what story does the cinematic tell--it almost seems like you were not prepared to reveal a new expansion at BlizzCon.

P.S. - I don't mean to make you sad. As you know, the game has a pretty passionate following.
Nothing was built and then "scrapped at the last second" in fact, from what I know, the developers have been working on a lot of this plus more (future more) very very hard. If you read this blog (if you didn't see the live stream) by Bashiok, you can read more of the dungeons and Raids that are planned. The "Warlords of Draenor: The Adventure continues" panel live stream also went more into the story and who you're going to see and meet there (the original warchiefs like Grommash, Durotan etc.)

The trailer shown for the announcement is more of a tease, but if you look at the main image, those are all orc warchiefs that those familiar with the original Warcraft RTS will readily recognize. This is a chance for the Alliance to take the initiative and go after the Iron Horde and it's a chance for the Horde as it is now to rediscover who they are and what they're about. The story is about YOU as a hero as well, facing down an incredibly powerful and dangerous foe in order to protect Azeroth as it is today.

It seems that there's still a lot of information that you're missing and if you didn't get the live-stream or don't plan to, might I also suggest spending some time reading the articles on our various fansites and listening to their podcasts? (We'll try to gather as many of them together for you as we can to help too.) I think that might help you understand a bit more about our plans.

As always, this is just the start of things and as development progresses, ideas, and implementation of those ideas may change, but we'll try to share as much as we can as we go along for you.

I must admit the whole garrison thing could have been cool but bliz just flat out got it wrong again... I would much rather see a GUILD garrison. Would it not be completely awesome if your garrison was attacked by random bosses/mobs and had to be defended by your guild. I picture huge armies of gnolls charging your gates or some random rock giant eating your walls... Make the events random and give some world loot for defeating it, or suffer thru massive costly rebuilds if you cant.
Much like the farm was a first step, consider this another step. People kept asking for player housing and we had to find a way to make it truly a part of Warcraft and not just a place to collect dust bunnies. This is what we've come up with. Could guild structures be something that comes about eventually? It just might. Not getting something now doesn't mean it's not possible some time in the future. It may just happen. We didn't just come up with Garrisons overnight. It took time, planning, thought, and technology to all come together. It's a great addition and you'll still be able to bring your friends and guildies into it to visit and maybe even show off your elite Garrison planning skills.

Wait...we're actually getting Draenei Lore? I thought that didn't exist?
Getting some? We're going to their HOME. We get to get up close and intimate with who they are, what they're about, their lore, their, struggles, their triumphs, their defeats. We get to find out so much more about them (plus no one crashes a space ship.) Are you sure you're ready for it?

I am not really missing out on a lot of information--Bashiok's blog post about D&R in WoD is not overly informative (it was mainly about the fact that Flex worked and it's coming back even more so, but we're renaming the difficulties).
We purposefully didn't recap all of the panels because we know how much coverage there would be from fansites etc. I certainly didn't want you to think I was saying you didn't know or understand the lore. I'm going off of all of the extra information that was shared within the panels that had a lot of extra nuance that may have been missed. We'll be doing what we can to fill in the gaps too over time. We just felt it was a good idea to get the basics out there, round up the fansite and media coverage and then as we move forward, start getting into more of the nitty gritty details as we define them more during development. Call it some breathing room if you will.

The story is being moved forward, just in another way. I understand if you might not have an interest in it or have expectations for a different story all together, but it's not directionless development being done. There's a plan in place and hopefully we'll be able to continue to express that plan to everyone in a clear way.

We really do appreciate all of the interest and discussion on it all already as well as the constructive feedback. Please don't think we don't.

Well... do we at least get a quest to crash an Elekk, Gryphon, Gyrocopter or something along those lines at least?

I've heard there's tanks. Will those do?

And here I thought that Draenor wasn't actually the homeworld of the Draenei, that Argus was their homeworld, and that they just landed on Draenor after escaping the Burning Legion. Looks like another Draenei-influenced retcon.
Not a retcon and technically you're correct, it's not their original home, but it's a home that they made their own complete with culture and history. So, you're right on one level and not right on another. They've had several homes, this one though is a pretty big one for them.

Just to touch on Wrathion briefly, it seems Dave Kosak did mention it in a panel that we like Wrathion and he may make an appearance but we have no plans to have him work on a Legendary quest line in Warlords of Draenor. (I checked with the team to see if I missed the answer somewhere and it seems I did.)

While we're discussing the story of WoD, here's something my wife seriously asked me after watching many of the panels:

"Are they going to have a heroic scenario where we discover the secret location that Blizzard is stashing all their female leads for WoD and free them?"

Seriously though, watching them roll out 10 main characters and having them all be men is disappointing. Maybe that works for the testosterone filled 18-24 male age group, but please remember that many of your players are women and men who appreciate a diversified story with actual female characters. Blizzard has always done a fair job of this, so the 10 main characters highlighted being all male felt very 2003 and out of touch for 2013. And frankly it's just boring to have the whole expansion be a sausage-festival.
Valid concern and I can address that only a little right now, but it's worth noting that there are plans for some female characters as well. Historically the clan chiefs are all male, so I can see how with the announcement video that it looks very male heavy. But, there will be female characters that will have their time as well. I'm not going to say 50/50 or equal time since I'm not privy to the specifics right now and wouldn't want to spoil anything anyway, but I can say that the designers are working on it. I don't know how much was covered by Applecidermage when she spoke with quest designer Helen Cheng but from speaking to her (and she's someone that's been critical of this herself), she seemed pretty happy about what she's heard. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor ContentTime travel is a concept that in every TV, game or movie I have seen it in means your product has jumped the shark and run out of ideas. The only thing worse in storytelling is the "It was all just a dream!" device. Not sure how they are going to implement it, but I would assume instance-style ala Caverns of Time or phasing. Fine for a patch. But didn't Blizzard just say in Cataclysm that creating a disjointed world was part of the reason it failed? Same with the Garrison concept. It's almost player housing...with phasing...which nobody likes and will be exploited in PVP...

What I do know is that this the first time I have ever leaned heavily towards not buying the Xpack. As an average player, that makes me feel like I am not alone, and that there needs to be more of the things I would expect in a patch. What I see right now does NOT make me want for fork over $50. (New character models!!! Really?)

Cmon Blizzard, give me a better reason to stay! What is missing that you need to see from this Xpack? For me, the minimum needs to be a new race/new zone. Otherwise, what am I paying for?
First, it's not a story of time travel. It's a story of Draenor. There's not moment where you've disrupted the space/time continuum. There's no moment when you will worry about running into your double. It's an opportunity to experience it in it's (savage) glory. Nothing more.

Second, while you may feel disappointed right now, (though from what I've seen you might be one of the few), you may just change your mind. Have you watched the Live-Stream at all? There is an awful lot to get excited about.

That said, I respect that you may feel the way you do, but I think you need to really look at it all again and then keep an eye on our updates we'll be providing along the way.

I think you may just feel you've gotten a new race just by the character updates. We're not just talking about a re-skin, but talking about more bones, more movement in hair, facial expressions that bring characters even more to life, animation, and even improvements to how they SOUND when they walk. (Sound Panel for those that missed it.) We also have to ask ourselves if a new race and class is necessary or even makes sense. There are so many to choose from already and a lot of work that's gone into each existing one as it is. Do we really have room for more? Maybe someday in the future. Is now the time for it? Perhaps not.

If you want new zones, there are plenty of those see here. There are seven of them all being built from the ground up.

If you're hinging your total enjoyment on whether or not there's a new class or race though, then yes, you're probably going to be a bit disappointed.

Sorry, but that WOULD make it a revamped Outlands. A new zone wouldn't need to be based on anything, that's what NEW implies.

Blizzard's definition of new and the actual dictionary definition of new are apparently two different things. See Neth's comments on how the new character models will be like getting all-new races.
My words taken out of context are just that. Don't make it sound as if it was a pithy remark to dismiss a concern someone had. There was more to the answer there. My point was that it may well feel (to some) like a new character with the enhancements/updates.

Outland is not being revamped. Draenor is a completely new world. Outland is the shadow of what Draenor was before it was shattered. We're not putting the pieces back together though. We're creating Draenor for you to experience as it was prior to it being shattered. It's being built (literally built) from the ground up. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor and Time TravelBlizzard sucks at realism. It's natural.
Please share your real time travel with the rest of us.

You are from universe A, going to parallel universe B 30 years ago. Anything happen in universe B won't affect history of universe A.
Right. Garrosh goes back to Draenor and starts messing with things to make his perfect Horde which creates an alternate timeline. From that alternate timeline they find a way to come through the Dark Portal to our present. A very real danger to our current Azeroth, but changes on the alternate timeline's past would not affect our present (except for the angry murder-orcs spilling out of the Dark Portal).

As Dave said it's not something you need to worry about, this isn't the time travel/paradox expansion; it's about exploring that setting, visiting those locations, meeting or facing these legendary names and figures from the past, and experiencing some extremely important settings of Warcraft's history in a bigger way than we've ever done before. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Account Wide Reputations
Even the account-wide systems have limitations/exceptions, and most are based on the idea that you're still playing individual characters that are making progress within the world they inhabit. Making various systems account-wide is obviously convenient and time-saving, but it can have a downside of reducing attachment and meaning for the actions of your individual characters. Despite some player's intent to reduce the game to its core systems, we do still hold that this should be an immersive roleplaying game, and that your character's actions aren't just numbers or an entry in a database.

In quite a few cases we're ok with sacrificing some character individuality for the sake of convenience, but even with those there are exceptions where achievements/mounts/etc. are character-specific. We don't really want the game to be a platform where you swap characters in at out at-will because there's no difference between them except a skin and set of abilities. Ideally you're making an alt because you want to play them.

So, in-short, we prefer that reputations are an enjoyable way to track your progress while playing, or something earned by a hero that so impressed a faction as to gain their highest esteem and reverence, and for those reasons we have no intention to make reputations account-wide at the current time. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Cost Of Leveling GearYou can make more mining, skinning and herb picking in lowbie areas than in the higher zones. What does that do to lowbies trying to raise their profession, trying to make money, and to equip themselves?
Probably makes them fairly wealthy off-the-bat if they have a gathering profession, which most do as the guides out there recommend against dual-crafting professions for new characters. Likely a what-if situation more than a real problem a lot of people run into. If low-level things on the AH are going for a lot, it means low-level players are going to sell the stuff they find for a lot, and they'll be able to get into the economy fairly quickly.

The redesign of 1-60 in Cataclysm also brought the quest/dungeon itemization in-line with newer designs, so crafting that OP Enchanting wand that'd last you until level 20 isn't really a thing any more. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

New Race or Class
We're making new character models for all original races (and likely draenei/blood elves as well) including redone hair/skin/appearance options and animations. We're essentially implementing 8 (10) "new" races, as far as the amount of work goes. It's been a long-time coming, it's been one of your guys' main requests for the game, one of our biggest wish-list items, and we're finally delivering on new character models. That's huge.

As far as a new class, when we take a long-term view of World of Warcraft we don't see a game where we ended up having 50 classes. A new class is a big deal, and while it can be a lot of fun, it's also a big shakeup to people's understanding of the game ("Who is this new guy and what does he do?" /in your best Arnold voice). Even if you don't play one they'll be in your groups and so it requires that everyone essentially learn the new class. We are intentionally cautious about adding new ones. Plus we just added monk and the class landscape right now feels pretty good. There will of course be class tweaks and changes in Warlords of Draenor, but having an expansion with the same talent system as the expansion before it (*gasp*), and with more or less the same ability/class lineup will be a nice change of pace and allow both our designers and players to focus on the big new features and quality of life improvements to the game's core systems. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Female Characters in Warlords of DraenorAfter watching the Blizzcon panels my wife asked me the following: "Are we going to get a heroic scenario where we discover the secret location Blizzard has hidden all of their female lead characters so we can liberate them?"

I've come to understand that so heavily weighting your stories to an all-male cast isn't just mindlessly sexist, it's downright bad storytelling as well. And it's a surefire way to make your story freaking boring (there are others of course, but this is a big one).

Of course I can appreciate that Blizzard has been hard at work, in secret, to build the WoD story and game. In that crucible of fire and secrecy, a lot of ideas are thrown in that will not pass a more public scrutiny. It is in that vein that I offer this post.

Now that you've opened up the process to the fans, allow me to help give you some perspective. And I'll also give you a little reminder that this is 2013, not 2003, and boring one-dimensional stories aren't going to cut it anymore.
I answered you (I believe it was you) in another thread, but I wanted to reiterate. As with any time we announce new expansions, we haven't revealed a lot of the story. Some things are just going to have to be experienced or revealed later if we choose to reveal them. That said, there are female characters that will be showing up to be a part of the adventure. I know of one at least that I'm really looking forward to learning more of.

Personally, I'm really happy to have so many in the community come forward and ask to see these wonderful female characters to get more air time. Hopefully the designers will be able to satisfy a bit of this for you. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Toy Collection in Warlords of DraenorI think the new inventory features for toys and heirlooms are great! But....how do I get back all the toys I had to destroy because I didn't have room for them?
We'll see what happens, but it may be possible to get you back the toys that were quest rewards. We'll have to see about anything else though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

PvEDo you see other types of PvE based content (i.e. raid alternatives, not faction grind/dailies) coming into WoW?
It is possible but certainly not trivial to design. (Source)

regarding encounter design, why do "tank swaps" keep getting used? Is there no other way to force a second tank into a 10m?
Swaps are one tool, along with just tanking different things, but we want to be able to have one boss fights as well. (Source)
We no longer do saber lash-style damage soaking, which tanks as a group were pretty down on. (Source)

Hey gc, how do you feel about the change from Hmode being activated through mechanics (like ulduar) vs clicking a menu button?
People tend to remember Mimiron and maybe Freya, but the fact is we were going to run out of "button" ideas really quickly. (Source)

Blizzcon Coverage Update
The World of Warcraft: What's Next panel notes have now been updated to include more detail. A mega recap is forthcoming after all panel notes have been updated!

Blizzcon Pictures
We have a small selection of the things you can see at Blizzcon! If you went to Blizzcon and took any interesting pictures, feel free to share them in the comments.

*The devs will try to reduce the economic impact that the Enchanting and Jewelcrafting changes will make. Enchanting might be able to make some weapons or offhands. Jewelcrafters might be able to make some trinkets or other things to sell.*

Ah come on. It didn't work with tailoring...so why should it work with other professions? I mean most of the stuff you can tailor are outdated after the second or third week and usually need three weeks to even get the mats(or pay much money to build them faster which results in prices that nobody wants to pay just to get an advantage for a week). The only 2 things that really work are the spellthreads(which are essentially enchants) and bags. So giving jewelcrafters and enchanters weapons and offhands will not compensate anything...and especially enchanting is not a way to get rich anymore(too many mats in the game and too many people have that profession cause it's one of the classics) anyway.

This dev interview had a lot of arbitrary and contradictory moments, which is sadly what I come to expect from Blizz.

Hit didn't feel like a bonus, so they're taking it away and replacing it with stuff like Cleave and Lifedrain. Apparently Dodge and Parry didn't feel like bonuses either, so they're taking those away and replacing them with... Armor.

They're working on quivers. I remember when my hunter had a quiver that displayed. Two steps back, one step forward.

We're not going to get a commitment to a free recustomization because they'll burn in hell before admitting that anyone might not like the character redesign.

Garrisons and QoL changes are content. And the model update is a "new race".

"Historically the clan chiefs are all male" - so when it comes to gender, fictional history and the WoW canon is really important to Blizz. "Please share your real time travel with the rest of us." But when is comes to their precious plot device, fictional history and the WoW canon can be cheerfully jettisoned.

And, of course, we have to get the now-expected, "our time travel isn't time travel!" line; "First, it's not a story of time travel. It's a story of Draenor. There's not moment where you've disrupted the space/time continuum." Seriously, has Kotick threatened to shoot their dogs if they admit their core plot device is time travel?

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Pacster

I demand at least 5% homosexuals in that expansion. Alternatively blizz could just admitt that paladins and elves are gay by nature. ;-)

I'd settle for one gay or lesbian character anywhere in WoW. (To the best of my knowledge, none exist. I'd be happy to be shown otherwise.)

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by CaptainArlong

What's with the obsession with changing your character after the new models are added? Your character is going to look exactly the same, only with a higher resolution. There's no difference at all.

Then there should be no objection to offering a free recustomization for a limited time, because hardly anyone will use them.

GC has said he feels flight was a mistake. However, that bird's flown the coop, so to speak. As to whether they can design content that works with flying mounts... do you not recall the birds around Halfhill used to be aggressive? Do you not recall Skettis, or the Skyguard and Ogri'la questing areas in Blade's Edge, or the black dragonflight infesting the Twilight Highlands? The problem, I think, is that to make the world as dangerous as they want it to feel, the air would have to be pretty much seething with aggressive creatures flying at various levels all the way up to the flight ceiling. The framerate impact would be truly ugly.

Originally Posted by helmaroc

Well they are listening to the people the amount of people that complain about immersion. If you can just fly over everything then you're just focused on the sky and your destination. People didn't choose to use the ground mounts because as you know convenience trumps immersion when you get the choice.

I get it. I was being unnecessarily harsh, I guess. It just irritates me that we go through this same song-and-dance every expansion, whereby Blizz creates a ground-based leveling experience that prohibits flying, rather than trying to integrate flying into the leveling process. Personally, I hate leveling: it's the part of the game I find most tedious, most time-consuming, and most annoying. So, I typically want to get it done as quickly as possible. I could get it done more quickly if I could fly, but every expansion, I'm relegated back to my ground mount. Now I'm being told I might not even be able to fly until the first post-expansion patch? That's really frustrating.

Swaps are one tool, along with just tanking different things, but we want to be able to have one boss fights as well. (Source)
We no longer do saber lash-style damage soaking, which tanks as a group were pretty down on.

And what was wrong with saber lash? At least there'd be more variety if they used both (and even *gasp* inventing new ways of having 2-tank fights), instead of being lazy and have every boss being "taunt at X stacks or take 10000% more dmg from the next hit". But then again, the cynical side of me says they also do it to prevent the bosses from being soloed in future.

And, of course, we have to get the now-expected, "our time travel isn't time travel!" line; "First, it's not a story of time travel. It's a story of Draenor. There's not moment where you've disrupted the space/time continuum." Seriously, has Kotick threatened to shoot their dogs if they admit their core plot device is time travel?

Yeah, this sort of cracks me up. Just because Blizz doesn't want it to be a story "about time travel" doesn't mean it isn't ACTUALLY a story about time travel. I mean, what other explanation is there? We're going BACK IN TIME to pre-WC1 Draenor. Blizz can try to downplay that aspect of the expansion all they want, but that's ultimately what's happening.

i think its like the situation in "Fringe". Walter (Garrosh) goes to a parallel universe where the orcs havent drank the blood of Manoroth yet (past) and thanks to this, both worlds (universes) are kind of bound together. The collision is comming near where both worlds collide (maybe when garrosh goes trough the dark portal?) and we have to stop garrosh to prevend the collision.

and when we brought peace to Draenor maybe we will return to Azeroth trough the dark portal und combine the 2 worlds and the dark portal then works as a bridge, like the machine in Fringe, that createt a place where both universes could exist without destroying each other.

and of course, since all the fighting is taking place in Draenor, there are no changes @ Azeroth.

Sigh. Another expansion where we can't fly until max level--or, in this case, even after that. Blizz should just come out and admit that flying mounts were a huge mistake and remove them. I love my 200+ flying mounts, but it is absolutely absurd that I cannot use them during the entire leveling process of each expansion because Blizz is unable to design content that works with flying mounts.

GC has already said that multiple times. Flying was a mistake.

I honestly don´t see what the big deal is. I enjoyed Isle of Thunder, Dino Island and timeless island without flying. For main pandaland, I usually use flightpaths anyway so I can take a pee break LOL.

The real ´problem´ Blizzard has with this is something you pointed out. So many rewards and even cash-shop items are items you can´t really use. Sure, you can ride a drake as a ground mount, but it looks silly.

I'd settle for one gay or lesbian character anywhere in WoW. (To the best of my knowledge, none exist. I'd be happy to be shown otherwise.)

i've ran into three instances where there seems to be a lesbian relationship, with one being a lesbian action that gets rejected.

there's the night elf sentinel in dragonblight, trying to flirt with another female sentinel. i'm not sure if this is just joking or actual flirting, the night elf she does it at seems to get very flustered.

there's a dwarf female and human female who share the same last name in the shrine of seven stars, they stand and talk and seemingly flirt. the dwarf has stockton as her last name, which is a human last name. so you can get from that they're probably married. they could be sisters in law, but they seem to flirt and do /shy emotes at each other.

the next one never struck me as lesbian, but there's the two in arathi highlands, i think one is named kinelory. i remember the quest, and it just doesn't give me a vibe like they're romantically involved, but a multitude of other people seem to get that vibe.

honestly, i'm bisexual and i really don't think there should be glaringly homosexual characters, or it's just gonna feel forced. the way blizz seems to be doing it now is ok, there could be more to it, so you really know for sure they're gay, but nothing super extreme.

Wait so when you boost a character their abilities are going to become locked till you complete quests? Thats a terrible idea, specially on a pvp realm.

But you're not gonna be out in the world, you'll be in a DK-like thing they said. And it's a great idea. If you boost a level 1 character to 90 you presumably have no idea how the class works and you'll be overwhelmed with spells and passives.

After watching the Blizzcon panels my wife asked me the following: "Are we going to get a heroic scenario where we discover the secret location Blizzard has hidden all of their female lead characters so we can liberate them?"

Sigh. Another expansion where we can't fly until max level--or, in this case, even after that. Blizz should just come out and admit that flying mounts were a huge mistake and remove them. I love my 200+ flying mounts, but it is absolutely absurd that I cannot use them during the entire leveling process of each expansion because Blizz is unable to design content that works with flying mounts.

What is sad is that fact you can't deal with not having a flying mount for a while....It is absolutely pathetic that you even bother to complain about this. I used the flying tome from WotLK on a single alt and absolutely hated what it did to the leveling experience. It literally turned into flying dive bombs for quest items and mobs. It was boring as fuck and had absolutely no appeal. I also found it did not actually speed leveling up at all...it actually hindered it imo. Also, if you remember to back when flying mounts were introduced. They told us plain out that we should not expect to use them ALL the time.